Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 65: There is a Master Hiding Among Us

At this time the live stream was pointing towards the area by Ah Qi and so, viewers couldn’t see the other surroundings of the filming location. Chen Yi tore open a lollipop as he heard Fu Xiu Nian say by his ear, 

“Right, why did you enter the entertainment industry?”

Chen Yi chomped a few times on his lollipop before he noticed that it was grape flavoured. He half-heartedly said, 

“Easy money.”

There was a gentle but elegant quality to Fu Xiu Nian, where being with him for a while seemed to let others unconsciously drop their guard. Chen Yi, however, was not used to having a heart to heart with another person and so he just quickly polished off the bowl of noodles before shoving it back towards Fu Xiu Nian. Even more impolite than Li Su Li, he said, 

“Go wash your dishes.”

Fu Xiu Nian silently looked at him,

“This is your bowl.”

Chen Yi emotionlessly turned his head, 

“Are you going to wash it?”

If not, he will himself.

Fu Xiu Nian: “……I will.”

He obediently took the bowl and headed back to the kitchen. Chen Yi stared at his back for a while, watching him through the faint yellow light by the door, and he could faintly see some bugs flying about in the light above him. Chen Yi retracted his gaze and then looked towards the darkness of the trees, clearing his mind.

To be honest, he didn’t know why he was here.

Chen Yi slowly pushed back his hair with a stroke of his hand, 

“Hey shitty system, do you know?”

[ Ding! Actually, the system’s first choice of soul to contract was not you, my dear host. It was only by coincidence that there happened to be a slight error, allowing for a mistake to be born. ]

“What kind of slight coincidence?”

The system rang in his head again, as like an invisible key, unlocking the sealed memories of his previous life. The system spelled out: 

[ Before my dear host you died, you expelled all the energy in you, and your cultivated energy was higher than normal, interrupting the system’s analysis ]

Martial arts families that had their art passed down for many a generation were all cultivating masters, or on the path of cultivation, especially in regards to their inner strength. Many of them have hidden themselves from the view of the world at large, but each and every one of them could kill without being noticed, using any materials on hand as a weapon, where even  flower petals and leaves could be used to slit someone’s throat. 

And amongst these masters, Chen Yi was the youngest of the generations, and a budding genius at that. But unfortunately his personality was too stubborn and bullheaded, brave, bold but fierce and ferocious. And so the elders within the clan did not look upon him very well, nor did they see him as one who could protect and cultivate the future of the clan at all. Even his blood related family members were more geared to favour his junior, who wasn’t even comparable to his strength.

And then later on, he had focused too hard on getting stronger, making him fall into a qi deviation, into disorder within his own mind and lost his life as a subsequent result. Perfectly falling into the mold his father made him out to be, even predicting it from the beginning, as he scolded him about what he would become. 

Something too straight and unbending will be all too easily broken……

The eyes of Chen Yi that were originally tainted with something dangerous suddenly dimmed for a moment when the system spoke those words. As if he recalled something unhappy, his expression subtly hinted at his displeasure, 

“Well if you have latched onto the wrong person, why don’t you hurry up and leave?”

As if the system was angered by his words, it suddenly firmed up.

[ I could leave. Only if you died. ]

Chen Yi paused in eating his candy, and his eyes turned dangerous. He wordlessly made a fist with his hands, his knuckles popping loudly, making anyone who would have heard it freeze up in fear, 

“What did you just say? I didn’t hear it quite clearly. Come out and say it again.”

[ Ding! This grand system lives in the consciousness of my dear host. Can’t see me, can’t touch me ]

If you want to beat me up, beat yourself in the head up then.

“……”

The program set the filming to last for about a week. They had already filmed for three days, while Chen Yi stayed at the hospital for another two. Once today passed, tomorrow would be the last day.

Li Su Li leaned against the door, agitation and annoyance raging inside her heart. Her mind kept swirling over and over again on what her manager had said to her.

“I have been watching the live broadcasts these few days, and all the attention and exposure you could have, has all been snatched by Chen Yi. Su Li, don’t take offense at my words, but you can’t be more famous than others, and you can’t even be more infamous than others?”

“Netizens will have visual fatigue. There are only so many years to be in the spotlight in the entertainment industry, especially for female stars. They especially need to take note. You are almost past that prime. There are newcomers emerging day after day, group after group. Each one competing is more and more young and beautiful. If you don’t grasp onto the right timing and get on that fame, you can only be placed on the back burner by the company.”

“The company executives originally wanted Nian Bing to appear in this program. I fought for your chance, taking all the hard routes to get you in here. Take some time to think it about thoroughly.”

Li Su Li and Chen Yi were artists under the same company, Global Entertainment, only their managers were different. The both of them were following the get famous by being infamous path, so if it was not one side succeeding by stomping down on the other, it would be the one side gaining an edge over the other. Their relationship could be compared to how water and fire will never get along.

No matter what, Li Su Li will use everything she has to overcome Chen Yi. But unfortunately it seemed like his brain had healed and smartened up after taking a trip to the hospital. Every time she had gone up against him since then, she had only eaten her own words or slapped her own face. It seemed like no matter what she did, she would not be able to get anything out of it.

When night fell and they headed to sleep, the live stream broadcast would be turned off to protect the celebrities’ privacy. Bright and early, at exactly 6a.m. it would be opened back up again, and because there weren’t really any good conditions in this kind of place, everyone slept together in one bed, but separated into two sections by gender. The distance between the two sections was the perfect distance apart.

They had all worked hard today, with little breaks in between and so after Ah Qi washed up, he was so tired he fell into a deep sleep the moment his head hit the pillows. Light snores were ringing out in the dead silence of the night very clearly and as Chen Yi was lying in the middle with this background soundtrack, he had no inkling of sleep at all. His mind was filled with too many things, many roads and paths of thoughts that led nowhere, no reason, and with no logic connecting them, leading to no conclusions, only clouds of confusion.

He rustled in agitation, flipping over and sideways, left and right, changing the position in how he lay. In the end he discovered that Fu Xiu Nian also had not fallen asleep either and instead was borrowing the moonlight seeping in from the windows, playing with the shadows of his hands. Those hands were long and dainty, but full of energy. Sometimes turning into a dog, sometimes a moth, shining upon the wall, bringing life into its shade.

Chen Yi: “Are you a zombie1? Holding up your hands in the dark of night to absorb the energy of the earth?”

Fu Xiu Nian paused his movements at Chen Yi’s words and slowly turned his head around. But he was only greeted with the back of Chen Yi’s head as he had already turned his body away from him.

The shadow on the wall was being magnified by a million times, and the master of those hands seemed to be mad. It opened and then tightened, opened then tightened, until, in the end, it became a fist, taking its revenge by punching the other’s shadow a few times.

Chen Yi was too lazy to even lift up his eyelids and said calmly in the darkness, 

“If you want to fight me, just say it to my face.”

Fu Xiu Nian immediately shrunk his hands back under the covers and obediently went to sleep.

Chen Yi was used to waking up bright and early to practice his mastery of the martial arts, so before it was even 6am, his eyes were already open. The other two beside him were still sleeping as he quietly slipped out of the bed to brush his teeth. When he opened the door however, he bumped right into Li Su Li and Zhao Ke Yi walking out of their room.

The two girls were fixing their perfectly set hair, with their faces all done up, with detailed and elaborate makeup and outfits on, as if ready to head out the door. They had been, as evident by their state of attire, up way earlier than Chen Yi.

Zhao Ke Yi, with her braided hair, looked very sweet and cute. She smiled as she greeted Chen Yi, 

“Chen Yi, you woke up early today.”

Li Su Li darkly said, 

“What a rare sight. The sun must have risen from the west today. Wouldn’t be waking up early to make us a meal, would you?”

Chen Yi stretched out his body as he replied, 

“Oh, I don’t mind. As long as you can stomach it.”

Li Su Li had many justifiable reasons to suspect that Chen Yi would purposefully make it indigestible as revenge on her. If it was like that, might as well let Fu Xiu Nian cook. She had not eaten anything good for a few days now, and so even if she wanted to mess with Chen Yi, she wouldn’t gamble with food.

Chen Yi finished cleaning himself up for the morning and changed into a cozy black hoodie, but he couldn’t find his shoes. He looked everywhere in the house and finally discovered his pair of white runners drying on the window sill. Someone had cleaned them up very well and left them there to dry.

He felt the inside with a hand and immediately put it on since it felt dry.

Not long after, Fu Xiu Nian and Ah Qi were awake. When they headed out the door, Chen Yi had already moved a chair to the courtyard and was lazily suntanning on it. Quite the exemplary picture of a retired old grandma. Fu Xiu Nian tried his hardest to keep his ruffled hairs down before sleepily saying to Chen Yi, with his eyes still not fully open, 

“Morning. I’ll make breakfast after I wash my face.”

Chen Yi leaned back in his chair, content as ever, 

“There’s no rice or vegetables left. How are you going to make breakfast? Water?”

Fu Xiu Nian slapped his forehead, 

“I forgot. The bok choy in the courtyard had already been all picked up and there isn’t much rice left.”

Ah Qi went into the kitchen to take a look and discovered that it was just as they said. His face was a bit worried, and he called out to the rest of the members, 

“We’ll head into the mountain to scavenge for some food. There are quite a few things that we can try and find. There’s also about five bags of instant noodles left, so we can leave that for lunch. I’ll head over to the other villagers to see if we could exchange the fish that we caught yesterday for some food as well.”

Although they did catch a lot of fish yesterday, none of these celebrities knew how to take care of them. So as of this moment, they were only piled up in their kitchen’s tiny fridge. There were not a lot of other perishables either, as the fruit that the old grandma had given them in exchange for their help had already almost been inhaled by them when they got back yesterday.

Following the passage of time, the number of viewers in the live streaming room was slowly increasing.

[ Hahahaha I’m eating my amazing and beautiful mother’s breakfast to watch this broadcast, and what do I find? Ah Qi with nothing to eat. What a glutton, what a terrible person I am ]

[ I still came too late. And here I thought I could see the bare face of the female celebrities ]

[ Hey the guy before me. I had been staring at this since 6. Yet the moment the broadcast went live, they already had their makeup done. Women are indeed terrifying creatures ] 

[ Our OK mei mei’s beauty is so youthful and her bare face is pretty. But I can’t say that for Li Su Li. After all, her age is irrefutable. Perhaps, after a few years, Chen Yi would be same, unable to create any waves ]

[ Hahaha are you all here for Ah Qi and OK? I’m here for Chen Yi ]

[ I’m here for Chen Yi too! Here waiting with my furious fingers to yell at him. My heart doesn’t feel good if one day goes by without me doing so ]

[ Yo, that guy in front of me, are you ill? I suggest you go to the hospital to check your eyes ]

[ I bet with a bag of spicy sticks2, that garbage Chen will not fail to cause trouble today ]

[ Of course. The program will be done with filming this afternoon. If he doesn’t take advantage of the last few hours, where would he even be able to cause any trouble ]

The audience was pretty accurate in their guesses. When the lot of them were carrying baskets on their backs and wearing gloves, heading into the mountain to scavenge for some food, Chen Yi was unburdened and empty handed. How light he looked was how light he weighed. Ah Qi was already done with caring about him and Li Su Li knew that she would not be able to get the upper hand with him, so she had really held it in and did not utter a peep.

Zhao Ke Yi however was not up to the intricacies of the situation and she tactlessly said on reflex, 

“Chen Yi, you forgot your basket.”

Chen Yi said, 

“I don’t need a basket.”

[ Wow I am fucking speechless…… Does he think he’s the emperor or something? Don’t need a basket ]

[ Who does he think he is? A saint? ]

[ emmm, what blind confidence does he have. Not bringing a basket means he doesn’t need to look around and scavenge for food. Don’t need to find food means he can laze around with good reason and in plain view. Wow, that’s amazing, what a thought ]

[ This kind of person really cannot become and never will be famous. Why the fuck is his attitude like this. His fucking tail would rise up into the sky and make him fly if he really had any substance to back him ]

[ If he can explode with popularity, I will immediately chop my head off for him, without any words ]

There was still some fog resting on the land in the early morning of the village. The dirt was also a bit wet from the rain from the past couple of days. With the haziness obscuring their sight and the very soft and malleable ground, the group was having trouble walking on this very uneven trail, tripping and stumbling. Only Chen Yi was not affected, walking as if it was all flat land.

Fu Xiu Nian was originally walking step by step beside him, but he ended up falling behind, stumbling as he walked on the slippery wet dirt, trying to grasp onto anything around him to keep his balance. The audience members had their hearts up in their throats as they watched him.

[ Ohmygosh, untouched forests like this are the hardest to walk in. Trees are the worst to use to keep your balance, and there may even be poisonous bugs on them. Just thinking about it makes me so scared. When I was a child walking in the forest, the amount of fuzzy bugs falling on me could bury me to death ]

[ wuwuwu our Xiu Xiu can’t even hold on even if he wants to. There are no trees beside him, just piles and piles of dirt. The slope looks so steep too. Just looking makes me freak out ]

[ I’m floored. How can that asshole Chen Yi walk so comfortably. I’ve been watching for half a day now and Ah Qi tripped six times, OK mei mei three, Li Su Li two (so usually wearing high heels give you a good advantage), Fu Xiu Nian twelve. But Chen Yi from beginning to head did not stumble even once ]

[ I think he’s hiding too deeply. He had the aura of a master yesterday when they went to catch fish ]

[ Hey the one before, are you blind? I don’t think Chen Yi has any master-like attitude. He’s good at taking down others, so who you become a fan of, it doesn’t matter as long it’s not Chen Yi, ok? I’m here really begging you from the bottom of my heart for you ]

[ + 1 ]

[ +10086 How blind are you to actually think Chen Yi has hidden his skills? The love goggles on this fan must be breaking through the 5th dimension huh ]

All the viewers were gearing up on their journey as a keyboard warrior and so that comment supporting Chen Yi was very quickly covered up.

Fu Xiu Nian was having a very hard time walking, and his entire body was focused on keeping his balance. His muscles were clenched up tight and his back was covered in a layer of sweat. Chen Yi seemed to have sensed something and he stopped to take a look behind him. The sight of Fu Xiu Nian made him uncontrollably roll his eyes in response.

“Walk in front of me. So when you trip, you won’t have to fly away into oblivion.”

“Auh. Ok.”

Fu Xiu Nian followed his orders and walked in front of him, but it was still a hard road to walk on. It was a very painful sight to watch him at all. He kept walking and walking, and he suddenly felt his hood tighten up around his neck. Slowly taking a look behind him, he was greeted with that face of Chen Yi that never seemed satisfied.

“Walk by yourself. What are you looking at.”

Chen Yi held up Fu Xiu Nian with one hand by his hood, stabilizing his back comfortably, with his other hand in his pocket. Even if he was being held back by a useless weight, he was walking very casually, with a lot of confidence.

The screen was somehow, for some unknown reason, barren of any comments for a few seconds.

Fu Xiu Nian finally was not stumbling for once and when he reached the area they planned to go to, he turned back to smile at Chen Yi. His black hair paired well with his white skin, looking quite like a gentleman, and he said with a lively air about him, 

“Chen Yi, thank you.”

Chen Yi didn’t even care to respond.

There were many fungi growing after the rain, and when the group first arrived at the village, the villagers had taught them some common knowledge for the countryside. There was one kind of mushroom that could be eaten, but the place where they growed would take a few twists and bends to get to. 

Ah Qi said to everyone, 

“I’ll head over to pick some mushrooms. You guys scavenge for things here. Make sure  you aren’t running around blindly.”

Zhao Ke Yi nodded her head in acknowledgement, and she crouched down to where she was standing to start digging for food. Li Su Li pretended to scratch at the dirt along with her, absolutely playing hooky as much as she could.

Fu Xiu Nian thought that Chen Yi would probably do nothing, and Chen Yi did in fact do nothing, just standing nearby and watching them dig.

Li Su Li was about to blow up, 

“Chen Yi, why are you slacking off again?”

Chen Yi lazily said, 

“I am not slacking off. I’m being vigilant, watching the area. You guys should probably dig faster.”

Everyone there felt blood choke up their throats: We’re not fucking stealing, so why would you need to be vigilant!

Li Su Li threw her shovel hard onto the ground in response and stood up, 

“If you’re not digging, then I’m not digging. For what reason are you always not doing anything, that’s not fair.”

Chen Yi didn’t respond to her and instead picked up a rock from the ground. He stroked and felt it a bit, the very action made Li Su Li so scared that she took a few steps back, 

“You you you…… What are you thinking of doing…… hitting people is……”

Before she even stuttered out the rest of her sentence, she could see the wrist of Chen Yi jerk in her direction and a sharp pitched tone rang by her ears, even producing a blast of wind. 

“Shou” 

Li Su Li grabbed her ears in fear, jumping quite far away, and screamed out, 

“Chen Yi! Are you crazy!”

Her voice had just dropped off when the bush beside her shook a few times and then a chicken clucked out. Everyone turned to look and they saw a rooster shake out its wings as it ran out of the bush for a few steps before falling over.

Li Su Li: “……”

Zhao Ke Yi: “……”

Fu Xiu Nian: “……”

The comments suddenly disappeared, leaving a clear screen for more than ten seconds. After a long while, a single comment passed by on its lonesome.

[ There’s nothing that special. Truly, really. When I was young, I used a brick to smash one dead ]

Notes:

*1 zombie: technically a zombie by the standard of a zombie, but a special type of zombie that might be translated as a hopping vampire apparently instead. This kind of evil spirit known in Chinese mythology is usually in an official’s outfit (like the officials of the time period of Xie Yu Zhi), can’t speak and only yells. They appear in only shadowy, dark places, sucking on the “hot/sunny/positive” energy (kind of like the yang of yin yang) that only live humans would have (hence the second half of Chen Yi’s sentence there), and are scared of the sun, fire, and glutinous rice. They can convert others by biting humans (hence the vampire portion) and they can only hop (hence hopping). I think it’s more mostly known that the way to stop them is to use special items like a special mirror or fulu (yellow papers that have special markings) to stick on their forehead to stop them.

*2 spicy sticks: Not really to my taste, but it’s a very common snack, like little spicy pretzel sticks as seen from the brand below.